Amazon Prime Video has some pretty high-profile shows, like The Boys, The Wheel of Time, and Jack Ryan. But amidst the best shows on Prime Video are some wonderfully underrated shows that are worth watching. Some are original series and others are network series, old and new, that you can stream to your heart’s content with an Amazon Prime subscription.
Looking for something new to watch this month while you wait for your favorites to return? If you’re a fan of The Boys, you’ll want to check out the spin-off series Gen V. But there are other underrated shows worth diving into as well.
The Horror of Dolores Roach (2023-)
The Horror of Dolores Roach quietly premiered on Amazon Prime Video as an original this summer. The black comedy horror series is worth checking out, receiving rave reviews for its first season. Justina Machado (One Day at a Time) stars as the title character, a woman who is released from prison after serving a 16-year sentence. But when she returns to her hometown, nothing is the same. The neighborhood has been completely gentrified.
Dolores finds solace in an old stoner friend named Luis (Alejandro Hernandez) but soon meets threats to her survival that cause her to go to extremes. Machado has been praised for her performance, and the series itself has been lauded for its wonderful balance of both horror and humor.
Watch The Horror of Dolores Roach on Prime Video.
Upload (2020-)
Upload got some attention when its first season premiered back in 2020, but it never quite received the fanfare it deserved. With a third season coming out in October, fans can’t wait to find out what happens with the lead character Nathan (Robbie Amell) a young man who, after dying in a car accident, had his consciousness uploaded to an affluent after-life community by his wealthy girlfriend.
Slave to Ingrid’s (Allegra Edwards) pocketbook and obsession with him, Nathan must hide his budding love for Nora (Andy Allo), the living woman assigned to be his handler. Poking fun at the concept of AI, technological development, capitalism, and inequality, Upload is darkly funny, but there’s also deeper social commentary beneath the surface-level sci-fi storylines.
The Power (2023-)
Beyoncé asks in her hit song Run the World (Girls), “Who run the world?” The answer ostensibly is “girls,” and that’s the very premise of this topical, gender-focused sci-fi drama. Set in a future, teenage girls have suddenly developed a strange power to electrocute people. Naturally, their immaturity leads to misuse, but soon they discover that they can awaken the power in older women, too. Suddenly, the entire nature of authority in the world has shifted, and women rule.
Toni Collette plays Mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez, Auli’i Cravalho her daughter Jos Cleary-Lopez, and John Leguizamo her husband Dr. Rob Lopez. With an all-female writer’s room as well, The Power has “girl power” written all over it. But it’s an entertaining watch that presents an interesting “what if” scenario that raises important questions about balance of power and gender equality.
